Contributors

Wednesday, 28 November 2007

24th Foot

The 24th Foot, nowadays immortalised as the regiment of Rorke's Drift, Isandhlwana and Michael Caine, arrived in Canada in May 1776. Their commander was Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Fraser, shortly thereafter promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. When Burgoyne formed his army for the 1777 campaign, Fraser was given command of the Advance Corps and the 24th went with him. The regiment was then commanded by Major Robert Grant until his death in July at which point command passed to Major William Agnew. The 24th was engaged throughout the Saratoga campaign. Two companies fought at Hubbardton and the regiment was present at Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights (where Fraser was killed).

The "British Grenadier" scenario for Bemis Heights requires 16 figures for this regiment, whilst Freeman's Farm needs 20. I stuck with 16 on the basis that the Freeman's Farm scenario does not permit the 24th to move out of a redoubt, and so the full 20 figures won't be required unless the Americans get very lucky and manage to assult the redoubt itself. The forthcoming second scenario book will contain a Hubbardton scenario so I may need to add some more figures to the unit later on anyway. Again, I consulted Brendan Morrissey's invaluable article on the Perry Miniatures ebsite to check the uniform. That article told me that all companies of the regiment had black cross-belts and also grey socks; the latter particularly I would not have thought of. He says that the horse-hair crest could be black or dark green; I went for green simply because it looks nicer.